Hit Or Miss The Dodgers' postseason hopes are riding on a recent batting tear

For the first five months of the season, rightfielder Shawn Green was the poster boy for what was wrong with the all-pitch, no-hit Dodgers. A two-time All-Star making $15 million a year, Green had just 12 homers and 61 RBIs entering September, and despite having baseball's best pitching staff, Los Angeles seemed like a long shot to make the postseason.

But after sweeping the Padres last weekend, the Dodgers were very much in the playoff race, trailing the Marlins by 2 1/2 games for the National League wild card. A major reason was the resurgence of Green, who had hit .333 with five homers and 14 RBIs over his last nine games through Sunday.

Many L.A. fans had wondered all season if Green was hurt, and on Sept. 1 he said that a right-shoulder injury (an MRI on Aug. 19 revealed bursitis and fraying of the posterior and inferior labrum) has bothered him since spring training and prevented him from finishing his swing properly. "It's not like it's excruciating pain every day, but it is there," says Green, who receives regular treatment for the injury.

Though his power numbers were down from 42 homers and 114 RBIs last year, he was batting .274 and led the NL with 46 doubles at week's end. "He has gotten a lot of grief for not putting up the home run numbers this year, but he didn't say a thing and kept battling," says reliever Paul Quantrill, who also played with Green in Toronto. "A lot of guys might tuck their tail between their legs and say, 'I am not playing today.' But he didn't do that, and you have to respect that."

Third baseman Adrian Beltre, whom Los Angeles had tried to trade earlier in the season, had also heated up, batting .431 over a stretch beginning on Sept. 1 when the Dodgers went 8-4. During that span L.A. hit .271 and scored 4.9 runs per game. "What we have done of late resembles what we thought we were capable of offensively way back in spring training," says manager Jim Tracy. "All of sudden people are starting to see that this club can be very dangerous."

Green's shoulder may require surgery in the off-season. Though he's had a trying year, he says, "It has been a rough season for a lot of guys, but if we are in the playoffs, none of that matters."

History doesn't favor the Dodgers, who were still the second-worst hitting team in the majors (.244, behind the Tigers' .236) heading into the last two weeks of the season. Only one team ranked last in its league in hitting has ever made the playoffs--the 1906 White Sox. "[But] if we continue to pitch and get the hits we have been getting lately," says Tracy, "it's going to go down to the wire."